It has become increasingly common for people to access media content over networks for use on computing devices. The Internet, in particular, has facilitated downloading and streaming of a wide availability of digital content. Many people are using network access to find, retrieve, and enjoy streaming media rather than relying on traditional content delivery methods such as over-the-air reception, cable transmission, satellite audio/video, and other distribution sources that push media to users typically on a scheduled basis that the user cannot control.
One particular difficulty with streaming media over the internet is limited bandwidth between a person's computing device and a host. Many people experience undesirable delays in receipt of streaming media or interruptions during play of the stream of media. One solution to expedite receipt of a stream of media to a computing device is to lower the quality of the media, such as by reducing a bit rate associated with the stream of media. However, people often desire the highest quality stream of media possible, which may vary based on a network connection bandwidth. Currently, tests of network connection bandwidth are based on short downloads. However, testing bandwidth based on short downloads does not adequately account for bandwidth concerns related to consumption of streaming media. Therefore, it is desirable to improve the quality of streaming media while reducing interruptions that people find undesirable while receiving streaming media due to bandwidth throttling or decreased bandwidth during long network connections.